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tv   Jansing and Co.  MSNBC  September 10, 2012 7:00am-8:00am PDT

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good morning. i'm chris jansing. well, if cash is king, president obama is back on top this morning. just edging out mitt romney in fundraising. obama and the dnc raised $114 million. the romney campaign and the rnc came in at $111.6, mitt romney's highest ever haul, but he still couldn't beat president obama. and money isn't the only place president obama looks like he has a slight advantage. a new poll shows he's getting a bounce from the convention. let me bring in david hawkings. good to see both of you. >> good morning, chris. >> good morning. chuck todd is one of the people who is saying this morning money is not going to decide this race. there is so much of it. they both have hundreds of millions of dollars that they've spent and will spend.
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but is there a psychological advantage when it comes to outraising the other side? >> i think it's good for the obama campaign in terms of showing enthusiasm. for the first time, today raise more money than april. i think overall, as other people have said, there's so much money, one. and then, two republican sewer packs are vastly outraising the democrat sewer packs. you'll see more ads that are anti-obama and pro-obama. this one month is not going to tell us a whole lot about fundraising in the campaign. >> mitt romney has more cash on hand, we should say, but the obama campaign has spent more up until now. take a look at the numbers. through july, barack obama, $481.5 million. romney, $325.9. so you have these two different strategies really. you have the obama campaign, spend early, define your opponent. the romney campaign seems to be let's do a late blitz when they think it will matter the most. is it clear who's right?
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>> it's not clear who's right. it does seem as though both of them are going to have whatever it takes to spend in those handful of battleground states. we have to assume that the so called playing field is going to get narrower as the election gets closer, not broader. i don't think that either side is keeping money in reserve to suddenly go into states that they didn't think that they were going to be contesting. i think that this is to echo what perry said a second ago, this is essentially they're playing to a draw in this, as with so many other things. the obama number this morning adds to the perception that the president got a slightly better bounce out of the last month than the romney campaign did. this combined with the inching up ahead in the polls over the weekend. >> it's at least significant enough that the republicans wanted to answer it. neil newhouse released this statement about the bounce. don't get too worked up about the latest polling.
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while some voters will feel a bit of a sugar-high from the conventions, the basic structure of the race has not changed significantly. could he be right or is it too soon to tell? >> important word in that memo is "significantly." he's all but conceal g seeding t -- is conceding it has changed some. obama is ahead in almost every poll. i think he's conceding there has been some change in the race. and it's a pro-obama change. that's a big moment. can it come back? of course. we have debates. we have two months left. so anything can happen. even newhouse seems to be conceding a clang in what's happening right now. >> and you watch it as an outsider, it does seem that president obama has picked up some momentum all of a sudden. he has this post-convention bounce. a little better fundraising month. certainly better than he's had comparatively over the last five months. and he has been hammering mitt romney for not being specific. listen to this clip. >> they talked about everything they think is wrong with
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america, but they didn't really talk about how to make it right. they want your vote, but they didn't really talk about their plan. that's because their plan boils down to tax cuts, tax cuts, a few regulations and then some more tax cuts. >> is the obama campaign doing a good job of kind of backing mitt romney into a corner saying where's the meat? what are this is their best argument. i think what the polls show is that the vote for me because i'm not barack obama strategy of the romney campaign, which is really their strategy in a nutshell for so many months, has gotten as far as it's going to go. if romney is going to win as a challenger, that last group of 10% undecided, maybe 15% undecided, the persuadables and the gettables, what they want is somebody to vote for more than somebody to vote against. and so what the president is trying to say there is romney hasn't given you a good reason
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to vote for him yet, only a good reason to vote against me. and the only reasons for are tax cuts, tax cuts and more tax cuts and deleg ratiregulation. that's a line that got one of the biggest applause in two weeks of conventions. >> it does seem like there's a sort of softening by mitt romney. i think by some members of his own campaign. they think that number is getting very, very small. maybe a million or so vote ergs spread over seven or eight steps. >> i want to make sure people understand, despite what the democrats said at their convention, i am not reducing taxes on high income taxpayers. i'm bringing down the rate of taxation, but also bringing down deductions and exemptions at the high end so the revenues stay the same. the taxes people pay stay the same. there are a number of things that i like in health care
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reform that i'm going to put in place. one is to make sure that those with preexisting conditions can get coverage. two is to assure that the marketplace allows for individuals to have policies that cover their family up to whatever age they might like. >> perry, is he moving to the middle? >> he is. you tell on both of those issues he's softening some, trying to make sure he appeals to voters in the center. his health care idea and his tax idea, nonpartisan observers are not really sure how exactly you do either one of those things. particularly when you reduce taxes on basically everyone. it's not clear how those ideas are going to work. he's definitely moving away from appealing to the tea party voter and more towards those 10% undecided. he pretty much has to get all the undecided to win this race. >> i want to bring in congressman john larson, member of the house ways and means
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committee. mitt romney has taken a lot of heat today about specificity, but their argument is we've tried it barack obama's way. job creation is still lagging behind our already modest expectations. we need something different here. do they have an argument? >> well, they become the party of change and hope. he essentially changes his position every day, and hopes that everybody doesn't notice it. funny thing on the way, the two words that they hate the most are called fact check. and when the facts are checked, as you've been saying on the show, his numbers don't add up and he doesn't bring any specificity. which means if you were to go ahead with his plan, as economists have already cited, that means the middle class gets whacked for about $2,000. as everybody knows, that ain't right. >> let me play for you a little clip of ann romney, who stood up for her husband this weekend. here she is.
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>> our life has always been devoted to those that are struggling more than we are, and i was grateful for the opportunity that we had at the convention for others to speak up and talk about the kind of lives we've led, and particular, for mitt, who really has been demonized in many ways as being heartless. >> they say both the perception and the reality is that mitt romney does care about the middle class. he showed it in the way he's lived his life. he said on "meet the press" he does not intend to raise taxes on the middle class. what do you say, congressman? >> well, my grandfather used to say it very well. trust everyone, but cut the cards. i mean, you're going to be president of the united states. listen, ann romney is a very sincere and wonderful person. i have no doubt that mitt romney is a good person. but in terms of being a president, based on the policies that they've laid forward, based on what he said he will do and then how they've changed their
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position, or etch-i-sketched it away, he has to say what he will actually stand for. pointed out by his own opponent saying nobody knows what he stands for. i think ann romney does as best she can to warm him up, but it's not a question of warmth. it's a question of specificity. on this question, as it relates to not burdening the middle class more and getting rid of some of the very popular things that are so important, like mortgage deduction and child tax credits. those impact people directly. >> let me ask you about what congress can and should be doing. big issues facing you now, funding the government past september 30th, the farm bill, the fiscal cliff. what happens if the election passes and nothing gets done? how do you make this work? >> that has been the ploy of the republican-controlled house of representatives. number one, chris, take up the
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president's jobs bill. i have heard the republicans at their convention subsequently talk about the number of people that are out of work, that are unemployed. the president has the only jobs plan that's on the board. isn't even granted the courtesy to take it up. we're going to be leaving congress rumored in what amounts to six business days? stay here and get the job done. for people that are outside, astonished that they won't do anything that seems content to kick the can down the road with the mission of rather seeing obama fail. >> congressman john larson, always good to have you on the program. thank you, sir. whoever wins the white house is going to fit next year's agenda for congress, and president obama is making his position on medicare clear. here's what he said on the campaign trail. >> i want you to hear me now.
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i will never turn medicare into a voucher. >> is that a pivot, and is it smart to pivot away from the jobs numbers? >> it's smart to pivot away from the jobs numbers. it's smart to poke at paul ryan for the main issue that got him on the ticket, that people are paying attention to. the president seems to have -- both sides have plenty of ways to pivot. they'll sort of poke depending on the day. you'll probably hear the president himself do what mr. larson just did a few minutes ago and call on congress to stick around before too long and poke at that for a day. i think it's fair to say and i think the congressman would concede the point that democrats and republicans alike have known this was coming for a long time. have known that they all want to go home in early october and spend a full month campaigning. mr. larson has just as many members that are eager for that extra time on the campaign trail as the republicans. >> mitt romney, meantime, making hay of another issue and that is
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the flap for taking god out of the platform at the dnc. let's listen. >> i will not take god out of the name of our platform. i will not take god off our coins. and i will not take god out of my heart. >> if the last election is a guide about independent and late deciding voters, they do tend to be more conservative, middle of the road to conservative. they tend to be white, middle class. is this a smart move on his part? >> i suspect that move is more about motivating the republican base. what you saw was the democratic base was very fired up. i think this god issue, particularly inspired the republicans, evangelical christians, the kinds of voters romney will turn out in big numbers. i think this is a play to get the base to turn out in big numbers. >> perry bacon, david hawkings, great to see both of you.
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how about this. the hug everybody's talking about this morning. the president literally lifted off his feet by a pizza parlor owner this weekend in florida. scott van duzer will be our guest later in the hour. with the spark cash card from capital one, olaf's pizza palace gets the most rewards of any small business credit card! pizza!!!!! [ garth ] olaf's small business earns 2% cash back on every purchase, every day! put it on my spark card! [ high-pitched ] nice doin' business with you! [ garth ] why settle for less? great businesses deserve the most rewards! awesome!!! [ male announcer ] the spark business card from capital one. choose unlimited rewards with 2% cash back or double miles on every purchase, every day!
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mitt romney and paul ryan have stressed the need to close tax loopholes as part of their overall tax proposal, but the republican ticket has been short on specifics. >> governor, where are the specifics of how you get to this math? isn't that an issue? >> the specifics are these, which is those principles i described are the heart of my policy. >> can you give me an example of a loophole that you will close? >> i can tell you pa people at
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the high end, high income taxpayers are beginning to have deduction. >> don't vote verse a right to know which loophole? >> mitt romney and i think the best way to do this is to show the framework, show the outlines and to work with congress to do this. >> i'm joined now by tara wallace, senior communications advisor with the romney campaign. good morning. your ticket has taken a lot of heat for this this morning, not giving the specification. why not say right now what are the loopholes you would close? will you tell the american people how you're going get to this better place that they say they have? what are they going to do specifically? >> well, again, the campaign has laid out a number of specifics relative to the principles that will guide the policies of romney-ryan ticket. >> we're not talking about the overall -- >> please, let me finish my thought, chris. can we please let me finish my thought? >> sure. i'm answer you for specifics. >> again, the specification
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include policies that are pro-growth in nature, that reduce the deficit, that reduce the burden on taxpayers and small businesses, small businesses number one have been hit hard by a number of regulations that have stifled growth and job creation. and so number one, those are some of the things you have to start with. >> well, with all due respect, a pro-growth policy is not specific. >> the other part of that is energy dependence. that's an approach to energy independence that will create millions of jobs. there is a target of 12 million by the romney-ryan ticket. relative to these loopholes that you mention, these are things -- i agree -- that congressman ryan pointed out that have to be put out in a public debate. but i think again, we have to look at what are the overall principles that are going to drive the policies and not ram through policy as we saw with obama care. i think you set up a cone of leadership that says we need to create -- we need to start with
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what works. not what hasn't worked in the past four years. and what we will do is replace and repeal, renew, reform the policies that have failed for the past four years. >> isn't part of leadership putting out a plan? isn't part of a leadership saying here's the start. now from here, we can negotiate. from here, we can talk. both with members of our own party and members of the other party. but don't you have to at least lay out a framework? you haven't told me one loophole that you would close. >> that framework has been laid out. i just mentioned in energy independence and pro-growth policies, repealing the $1 trillion overhaul of the government takeover of health care. that alone has been one of the hugest tax burdens. has stifled this economy. that right there is day one, job number one. energy independence, day one, job one. economic free enterprise pro-growth strategies that help small businesses. that's the framework that we start from and then the
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discussion goes from there where we debate this in congress. the only person that has not come up with a plan, the only one specific that president obama has given as far as his plan, if he were to have another four years, would be simply to raise taxes. that's the only specificity that this president has given, versus a 59-point plan we've laid out as well as the five-point plan i mentioned. you may not like the plan, but i think that's up for voters to decide. we spelled it out over and over again. i don't know how many times i can sate. but that is our approach. it is the principle and the spirit by which this ticket will lead. and i think that that's where you start. >> i think you can talk about energy and independence. i would argue that that's not a tax loophole that's going to be closed, but we'll let people dd for themselves. >> we'll create millions of jobs and that has been a proven fact. i think if you look at the record of governor romney, who has done this in the past, he has a record for bringing down deaf sitz and debt. he has a record for job growth. and job creation.
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he has a record that's actually a better record than the obama administration has had in the past four years. so i think it's a difference between looking at what this president tried in four years, it did not work and failed, and restarting with a leadership team, a business team who looks at deficits and budgets and has done this successfully and has worked across the board in a bipartisan fashion and has had great success. i think that's what americans are looking for when they look at a leader and whether that leader is going to create pro-growth strategies or big government strategies and those are the clear, distinct differences we're talking about here. >> let me ask you quickly, because there's a lot of conventional wisdom on both sides, that in this race, october 3rd may be the most important day. the first debate. how much time that is governor devote sod feted so far? >> he is in the midst of preps and he's looking forward to to having great robust debates as well as vice presidential
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candidate paul ryan. so i think americans will once again continue to learn more as we've said, all along, as he goes out across the country and through the debates, through the convention we just had. americans are continuing to get to know much more about these candidates. and the race continues to be tight. we expect it to be that way going through november. >> tara wall, thanks so much for being on. >> thanks for having me. police in jupiter, florida, have put up a web page in memory of the officer who was killed in president obama's motorcade. he was married for more than 30 years and leaves four children. st. laurent was ahead of the motorcade when he was hit by a pickup truck in west palm beach. no charges have been filed against the driver. hey! did you know that honey nut cheerios has oats that can help lower cholesterol? and it tastes good? sure does!
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to politics now, where it looks like there could be a california-new jersey smackdown. governors jerry brown and chris christie are going back and forth. christie called brown a retread, and now brown is doubling over a fitness competition. >> i warmed up for one of my speeches. i said okay, christie, i challenge you to a three-mile race. >> essentially saying that he's overweight. >> no, essentially says this old retread can beat you any day of the week. >> on the campaign trail this weekend, president obama made a little joke about his birth certificate. >> you were born in hawaii? >> okay. >> do you have a birth
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certificate? >> and larry flynt and "hustler" magazines have offered a million in cash for information on mitt romney's tax returns. if you read only one thing this morning, my must read today is about cars. i should say i don't own one. i have no immediate plans to get one. but if i were, there are some amazing wheels coming out in 2013, so take a photo tour courtesy of the "chicago tribun tribune". you won't believe some of these cars. it's up on our facebook page. [ mrs. hutchison ] friday night has always been all fun and games here at the hutchison household. but one dark stormy evening... she needed a good meal and a good family. so we gave her purina cat chow complete. it's the best because it has something for all of our cats! and after a couple of weeks she was part of the family. we're so lucky that lucy picked us. [ female announcer ] purina cat chow complete. and for a delicious way to help maintain a healthy weight, try new purina cat chow healthy weight.
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let's bring in jamal simmons and rick tyler. good to see you, good morning. rick, top republican official tells politico that president obama has more routes to victory. we know pennsylvania seems to be in obama's column. what is the path that you see for mitt romney right now? >> well, mitt romney has got to continue this trend and continue to make this a referendum on obama. there's a very large anti-obama sentiment out there, but mitt romney has got to convert that sentiment into being pro-romney. >> where does he focus, rick? does he have to win florida? >> i think he's got to win florida. he's got to win ohio. indiana, which was an obama state before, has already put away -- i think north carolina has already put away in the romney column. wisconsin is getting closer because of paul ryan. michigan is ironically very close. so there's lots of ways to get there. but he's got to win florida. he's got to win ohio, in my
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opinion. >> do you see lots of ways to victory for mitt romney, and how small is this pool that he and barack obama are trying to win over? >> i think it's a pretty slim path to victory for mitt romney. look at this last ad by the romney campaign. went up by 15 new ads in a bunch of different states. they did not go up in michigan. they did not go up in wisconsin. if you follow the money, that tells you something. chuck todd reports on it all the time. we also know that mitt romney spent this weekend with pat robertson. it's clear to me that they are actually not focusing on swing voters. they're going after base republican voters. i was on a panel with ralph reed. ralph reed has been talking about turning out millions of evangelical voters that didn't show up for john mccain in 2008 but did show up for george bush in 2004. i think they're going hard after the hard religious conservatives to get them to show up and see if that can boost romney's chances. >> do you think that's what they're doing and if it is, at least to some extent, can that
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be a decider? can that be significant? >> well, a couple things. one is the romney campaign did by ads in wisconsin today. secondly, i do think going after the evangelicals, which i would not call hard right, but actually mainstream, is a very smart plan to do. because there are 69 million so called evangelicals. there are also a very large percentage of the catholic vote that acts like evangelicals. they go to church every single sunday and those are the people that mitt romney has a large value of appeal to. many times they do sit out and they sat out for mccain. if they show up for mitt romney, that could be the deciding factor in these swing states. >> what does mitt romney have that john mccain didn't? what would make them come to the polls for mitt romney when they didn't four years ago? >> evangelical are suspect that romney is a mormon, but when they look at his values, they know that his values line up
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perfectly with theirs in terms of family and the things that they value and believe. so states like new hampshire, iowa where there's a lot of catholics, michigan where there's a lot of catholics, these are going to make a very large difference. and the states where he can turn on the evangelical vote to say this guy is for us, he will protect marriage, he will protect the unborn, they could show up in droves. they've got to not just be anti-obama. they've got to show that they can turn this constituency into pro-rom kne pro-romney. >> what's the path for barack obama? you've got less than 60 days left. so where has their focus got to be? >> their focus is where it has been. talking about leadership, values who do you trust to be in the office. also as we saw at the convention, talking about national security and all the different facets of the presidency that have to be managed. i want to go back to that one earlier point, about being the
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romney campaign in wisconsin. i think th you just don't want to be embarrassed in your candidate's home state but you know you probably are going to have a pretty tough slog to win it. romney is going to lose both michigan and massachusetts. his two home states. when was the last time you had a presidential candidate win the white house without winning his home state? >> they did an average, they took all the recent polls in eight of the battleground states and the president leads, rick, in seven of them. all but north carolina. are you one of the folks who believes that ultimately october 3rd is going to be the most important day of this campaign? >> well, look. reagan was way behind at this point over jimmy carter and we just historically have done not very well in polling. i'm suspect of the polling. the other home state that mitt romney will probably win is new hampshire. and wisconsin, by the way, turned out -- the gop just did a smackdown on the democrats in
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2010, and the whole scott walker thing, it was just indicative of where that state is right now. >> do you agree with that, jamal? >> i don't, because i think the 2010 special election is very different than the 2012 presidential election. if you go back and look at presidential elections, republicans haven't won wisconsin i think since 1988. if they want to spend money in places like pennsylvania, michigan, wisconsin, let them have at it. when democrats spend money in missouri -- we always tried to win missouri, but never actually made it across the finish line. i think the same thing is true in these big industrial states like wisconsin and michigan. >> jamal sim mono, rick tyler. great to see both of you. thank you. also making news this morning, nbc news has learned that the taliban has made plans to try to kidnap and kill england's prince harry, who's deployed in afghanistan rights now. a taliban spokesman claims they have informants in the afghan army working with british troops who can help trace the prince. health officials have
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quarantined a home featured on the reality show about hoarding after a woman who helped cleaned it up caught what could be a deadly virus. they're still waiting for test results but officials believe she caught the hanta virus, which is contracted from dried rodent waste. at least three others may have been exposed. >> a tulane football player injured on the football field. he fractured his spin. it's too soon to tell whether he will be paralyzed from this injury, but doctors will know more in the next few days. and look at this. serena williams jumping for joy after winning the u.s. open last night, despite trailing, she came back to beat the world's number one ranked player. serena said she couldn't believe she won, and she was even preparing her runner-up speech while she was playing. toys 'r' us is entering the
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tablet war. mandy is here with "what's moving your money." i've seen kids with the ipad. so it was inevitable, right? >> it really was. there's the tabio, retalg for $149.99 and will only be available at toys 'r' us so. you can't basically try it out in a store and then purchase it for less on a website like amazon.com. that is basically known as showrooms. they're trying to get rid of the showrooming phenomenon. but while private label products generally have higher margins, toys 'r' us is facing a number of risks here because it's doing its first move into house brand electronics and there is quite a bit of competition in this field out there. >> just days after unveiling its new kindl fire, amazon is offering an advertising-free version, but it's going to cost you. >> it is going to cost you. they said they're going to allow purchase of the new kindle fire
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to pay $15 extra to turn off the annoying ads that are already built into the devices. this comes just barely a day after amazon -- you might remember late last week, unveiled the larger kindle fire tablets to challenge the ipad on price. they said the tablets would come with ads or special offers, but there was a lot of criticism of that and a lot of people went online, in online forms and criticized that idea, so therefore they've basically changed their policy. >> cnbc's mandy drury, the power of people. thank you so much. there was an, less-expensive option than using a traditional lawyer? well, legalzoom came up with a better way. we took the best of the old and combined it with modern technology. together you get quality services on your terms, with total customer support. legalzoom documents have been accepted in all 50 states, and they're backed by a 100% satisfaction guarantee.
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i don't have to use gas. i am probably going to the gas station about once a month. drive around town all the time doing errands and never ever have to fill up gas in the city. i very rarely put gas in my chevy volt. last time i was at a gas station was about...i would say... two months ago. the last time i went to the gas station must have been about three months ago. i go to the gas station such a small amount that i forget how to put gas in my car. ♪ scott van duzer has taken the personal touch to a whole new level. the president got an enthusiastic bear hug from van
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duzer, who was so excited to meet obama, that he lifted him off his feet. he is the owner of the pizza shop. she a registered republican who voted for president obama in 2008. good morning, great to see you. >> good morning, how are you? >> i'm great. you are aware there are armed secret service agents just feet away, right? >> they made a couple steps right at me. >> did they really? >> yeah. it was a controlled, safe atmosphere. there was no threat. but i put him down quickly and made sure i wasn't taken away. >> what did he say to you? >> you know, the whole thing was -- i was just overcome. we were watching the convention last weekend. when he came in, he busted through my front door and said where's scott? from that moment on, it seemed like he was a long, lost friend. and it was just amazing. a great connection. he came over, gave me a hug. and that's when the bear hug happened. like i said, i was so caught up
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in the moment. and it was unbelievable. >> what do you think he weighs? did you get a good sense around that? >> he told me, 170. >> you lifted him like it was nothing. you're a small business owner. you voted for him. a registered republican you are, you voted for him in 2008. there are a lot of concerns about the health care plan and the tax plan, but you're going to vote for him again, right? why? >> i am. i voted for him because i was taken by his enthusiasm, his message at the beginning. and it's my responsibility to be successful in my business, not his. no matter who's in the white house, there will be issues. as long as i take care of my business, it's no one's choice but mine. to get back to your question, i just liked his enthusiasm and was taking the country in a
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direction -- obviously things are tough, but it's tough for everyone, not just here in america. it's tough worldwide. i was taken back by his dedication and seemed like a great guy. and he really is a great guy after i've met him. >> i want to say, scott, that he was taken by you as well, because the reason we're told he stopped into your pizza place is because you use it a lot to have blood drives and you've been responsible for a lot of blood donations. so we want to give you props for that. but i wonder now after this that has happened, what kind of reaction have you been getting? because this video is being seen everywhere. are people calling you? are they texting you? >> i tell you, it's power of the media. within an hour, we've gotten calls from all over the world. from london, australia, sweden, germany. you name it. i think the picture was a moment in time where it was ann just an innocent, enthusiastic greeting, and it was captured, and that was the best part of it because
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it was just pure emotion. and i was excited, as you can tell by the picture, it was just a great moment in my life. >> and i just want to clarify. you did not have preapproval to do this. because there were some reports. but it was just a spontaneous home. >> just spontaneous, yeah. they came in an hour before he arrived and the building was secure, even down to my pizza cutter knives. everything was gone. and it was just -- it's how he came in and just the enthusiasm that he brought, i felt i had to up it a little, give him the bear hug, i guess. >> scott, a moment to remember, i'm sure, for the rest of your life. thank you so much for being on. we appreciate it. >> thank you. >> have fun today. enjoy. today's tweet of the day comes from the account mindblowing facts. it reads -- you think you're having a bad day? remember this. in 1976, ronald wayne sold his 10% stock in apple for $800.
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almost half of american workers, nearly 60 million people, are employed by small businesses in this country. both candidates are battling for this critical voting block. and at the center of it, taxes. >> i've indicated as well that contrary to what the democrats are saying, i'm not going to increase the tax burden on middle income families. it would absolutely be wrong to do that. >> listen, you've got to do the math, because when my opponents were asked about it today, they couldn't. it was like two plus one equals five. that's not bold leadership. that's bad math. that gets a failing grade. >> jared bernstein is the fellow center at the center for budget and policies. steve caldera is the president and ceo of the international
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franchise association. good to see both of you this morning. jared, let me start with you. what does the president say to small business owners whose taxes they say would go up and that's going to -- they say -- force them to cut jobs or stifle hiring. >> the tax claim is essentially false because the only tax increase the president has proposed is for households above $250,000. there are some businesses who claim their business receipts on their personal income tax, but they're the top 3% of small businesses. so for 97%, that's not the case. and that top three tend to be, you know, doctors, lawyers, private equity funds, to pull one out of the air, tend to be very high end businesses. i think that the argument here, whether it's the president or governor romney, is what the small businesses need to succeed. steve is very good on. this we're talking about infrastructure. we're talking about a stable tax base. we're talking about an educated
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work force. we're talking about credit markets. i think that's really the way to evaluate the two different platforms here. >> is there a brighter picture here, steve? >> look, 80% of our members are llcs, they're s-corps. >> what does that mean for people who don't own small businesses? >> they pass their income through their business. they file their income through their personal tax returns. and so you've got 80% of small business owners that are have to pay taxes. so jared talks about the 3%. and that 3% represents 941,000 businesses. and if the tax cuts aren't extended for all levels, that means 714,000 jobs would be lost immediately. i think in this economy, every job is critical. so our industry -- we have 450 small business owners in washington going to take capitol hill tomorrow to say the
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partisan rancor is stifling small business growth and it's keeping existing franchisees from starting their business. >> an overwhelming 61% said they would vote for mitt romney over the president. >> look, i just think what steve just said is very partisan and very misleading. if you actually look at how small businesses -- if you look at how they are doing, they're actually improving. they're actually having their best year, since before the recession. they're improving too slowly, i grant you that. but the idea that somehow a tax increase back to the clinton rate, by the way, on those very small percentage of folks at the top, is going to cause hundreds of thousands of job losses is just -- i think it's just ludicrous and i think it completely ignores the fact -- and businesses will tell you this. we can't keep building on the
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deaf sis deficit. kicking the can down the road. cutting taxes. i'm sorry, but that just doesn't create the kind of environment that businesses actually need. >> let me get to one more thing. one of the things i hear from small business owners, and that the romney campaign has talked about, is that the health care law really hits small businesses hard, but yesterday, governor romney said there were a number of things romney liked about the law. he'd maintain coverage for preexisting conditions, adults living with their parents. how critical is this issue to small business owners and their vote? >> well, from the franchise industry's perspective, it disincentivizes our members to get above that number. you're forced to provide the higher premiums or fay 2,000 penalty per the employee. you know, we think health insurance is important, but you don't blow up the house to fix the hole in the roof. that's what happened with this health care law. this was the bill that we needed
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to pass before we could figure out what was in it according to speaker pelosi. >> does it make you nervous when you hear mitt romney saying there are parts that he would definitely support? >> look, i think we need to look in totality about the best way to approach comprehensive tax reform. what are the goodell. s of the health care law? what are the things that are really going to take away from small business communities of growth moving forward? we're looking at 8.1% unemployment. it went down, because 368,000 people dropped out of the work force. 50% are underemployed. this has been a very dismt environment for the small business community. >> there are not 23 million unemployed people. there's about 12 million, so let's get that straight. >> we're out of time, gentlemen. i hope we can continue this another time. jared bernstein, steve caldera, thank you for coming on. that does it for this edition of
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jansing. good morning, craig. the state of the race after charlotte, after tampa. even republicans right now are saying it's advantage obama. what would romney's plan deliver and who would get left in the cold? we will ask our blogger in chief. the taliban vows to kidnap or kill prince harry, who is right now flying apache helicopter missions in afghanistan. we will tell you what's being done to protect him. [ male announcer ] this is anna, her long day teaching the perfect swing
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good monday to you. topping the agenda today, advantage obama with the conventions behind them and 57 days to go. the president seems to be gaining the upper hand in the race for the white house.

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